Period 7: Supplements For The Brain
Supplements For The Brain '''is the seventh chapter of the Zekkyou Gakkyuu series and 4th chapter in volume 2. Premise ''Try as she might, Ayumi is unable to keep up with her smarter class, and her even smart friend Megu. No matter how hard she works she doesn't seem to be improving. But one day she sees an ad for a pill said to increase your intelligence... '' Yomi's Introduction Yomi approaches the board with an equation behind her. She brings up how horrible is to have to do homework all the time and asks the readers if they would be willing to do anything to improve their smarts without studying. Summary Ayumi stares at her recent test paper to see she only got an '''18 on it, in comparison to the 80 and above of the rest of her classmates. She is teased by two males when her friend Megu approaches and tells them off, having come to pick up Ayumi while they wait for her mom to show up. The other students are surprised to see her in the E class -unaware of her friendship with Ayumi- and Ayumi momentarily breaks into narrative to explain how Megu is a student in Special Class A at her cram school, and how she's bound to get into the super famous middle school in their district. Megu goes on to ask Ayumi how she did, and unable to tell her the truth she claims she passed it with no problem. As this is going on Ayumi tries to ignore a few girls nearby, who try to determine why Megu would be her friend. At home, Ayumi's mother is angered by her daughters poor marks. She asks Ayumi why she didn't study the night before at least and claims it will be embarrassing to face Megu's mother, although Ayumi's father tries to calm her down as Ayumi runs to her bedroom and curls up on her bed in tears. She recalls when she first met Megu and how they became friends after a teacher yelled at them for conversing during the exam portion to determine which class they would go to. Afterwards, Megu continued to rise in grades and now her class is extremely far away from hers. Enviously, Ayumi remarks on how Megu probably doesn't even need to study, and how gifted her family is. Her mother is a teacher, and her brother graduated from a top collage. As she starts imagining how different things would be, her mother snaps her out of her thoughts by telling her to study. Ayumi picks up the mess of items on her bed when out of the corner of her eye she sees a an ad for a Brain Supplement. She overlooks it before discarding it as a silly joke, but after she sees they are giving free samples she is suddenly enticed to at least check it out. A week later the package of pills arrive and Ayumi rushes to her bedroom and opens her package. She finds a sheet warning her to only take one ''pill per day, and she is asked to write down the date of when she started and they will supply her based on that information. She also finds a review sheet from a few people who have tried the pill. After she gets called for cram school she quickly eats one and leaves. In class, Ayumi sadly stares at the arithmetic paper before her and struggles trying to determine what to do since the pill isn't doing anything. But after reading the equation, she is surprised when all of the sudden she understands it and begins to fill out the entire sheet. She is shocked when she gets her paper back to see she got a ''90 ''on it, impressing not only her teacher, but her fellow classmates. She is flustered by their surprise and she heads out to meet up with Megu once class ends. Megu brings up having heard about how well she did and she expresses her delight, having been worrying over her lately. Ayumi is touched by her kindness, and she is returns home to see even her parents found out and prepared a nice dinner for her. With that, Ayumi continues to use her supplements to improve her scores, impressing everyone and feeling better abou her improvement. She observes the paper delivered from the supplement firm, which is recording them and she realizes that at this rate she could easily manage to get into the top middle school. In this time, she had also been sent to the Special A class, which she thought would never happen. While she is initially shy, she instantly brightens up after spotting Megu, and she tries getting her attention. However, Megu ignores her after she tries to get her attention, concerning her. After class Megu approaches to ask Ayumi if she will be coming with them to speak to the Teacher. Ayumi refuses, as she wants to get home to catch a television show she likes, but as she is leaving she finds it strange Megu wouldn't understand something. She realizes she forgot her pencil case and hurriedly turns back to retrieve it, but before she heads into the room she overhears Megu and a few girls having a conversation. Not wanting to disrupt she remains in the hallway to wait until they finish; expressing shock after realizing its about her. They find it hard to believe the stupidest kid in the E class could suddenly improve and reason that she must be cheating. They can't think of any other explanation, leaving Ayumi to wonder if taking supplement pills are really such a bad thing. She doesn't think so though, since they are only pulling out the potential from within her like the paper said. As she mentally pleads Megu to defend her, she is horrified as she suddenly agrees with them. She didn't want to believe it, but t is suspicious since she never shows her work; she only writes down answers. The teacher also noticed it but that doesn't count as proof. Listening the the other girls continue to badmouth her, Ayumi begins to silently cry and wonder if Megu had been deceptive to her face this entire time. She opens the bottle of pills and pours a bunch out. Later, Ayumi is shown having become even more brilliant than before. Not only did she get perfect marks on everything, but she managed to successfully do high school level work, and provided extra work for bonus points. Still feeling angry over Megu's betrayal, she can't resist rubbing it in her face after she sees her own work, saying that she is ''chosen, and how she won't ever have to study or cheat. As other students begin to chat about this, Megu appears shocked realizing Ayumi overheard her discussion the prior day. Happy to have humiliated her old friend, Ayumi heads for home while laughing about how stupid she looked and thinking about the famous schools she received pamphlets for when she notices a strange letter from the supplement firm. She opens it to see that she was "chosen" for something, and startled, she sees that they somehow found out about her breaking the "one pill a day" rule. She's at fault, and because of this she is now a "graduate" and must be collected for study and have her head experimented on. In a panic, the slightest bit of noise causes her anxiety and she runs inside of her home. She locks the door behind her and wonders how the firm can do this before she recalls seeing the "graduates" review sheet were actually test subjects of theirs who over-dosed like she did. She wonders what happened to them when suddenly her phone starts to ring. She attempts to ignore it fearing the worst, but realizing it's Megu she hesitantly listens to the message. Megu brings up how Ayumi must have listened to her the prior day with the other girls, and she tearfully explains how she only said it out of anger due to how little Ayumi ever studied, while she spends all day studying late into the evening with her mother. She realized in this time that Ayumi must have been trying her best this entire time and nobody ever noticed, then she apologizes for being cruel. As she continues to speak, it dons on Ayumi that she rushed to judgement over how poorly she felt hearing them. As Megu mentions that despite how hard she tries, Ayumi must be a chosen person, the door bell begins to ring. Elsewhere is a woman observing a magazine while chatting with someone out in public. She happens to come across the supplement ad, where a new graduate has been added to the reviews. Yomi's Epilogue Yomi writes on the board and mentions how people are unable to see effort. Some people push themselves to the limit and its still not enough, so she recommends the supplements, showing the reader the bottle while saying they should get them before they sell out. Characters *Ayumi Ooishi *Megu Saitou *Classmates *Mrs. Ooishi *Mr. Ooishi Quotes Trivia Gallery Category:Chapters Category:Vol 2 Category:Manga